


quarantine

by thunderylee



Category: Nobuta wo Produce
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Canon Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-23
Updated: 2008-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-03 15:06:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12750720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderylee/pseuds/thunderylee
Summary: Prompt: Akira stops hanging all over Shuuji and Shuuji gets jealous because he thinks Akira has a crush, but really it’s because he’s sick and doesn’t want to pass on his Akira germs.





	quarantine

**Author's Note:**

> reposted from agck.

It’s been three days since Akira touched Shuuji, and Shuuji should be rejoicing. He never did like how Akira had no concept for personal space, even now that they were adults. Technically, anyway, since Akira still acted like he was seventeen at twenty-two.

_I can’t meet you today_ , his phone reads for the fourth day in a row. _I’m busy_.

“What could he possibly be doing that keeps him away for _four days_?” Shuuji exclaimed into the house phone.

There was an amused humming sound at the other end. “Maybe he’s got a girlfriend.”

Shuuji gasps dramatically and almost drops the phone. “What do you mean, a girlfriend? Wouldn’t he tell me?”

“Not if he knew you wouldn’t like her,” Nobuta replies nonchalantly. “Maybe it’s a real slutty girl and he’s just dating her to get some.”

“Nobuko!” Shuuji cries. “Since when do you talk about such things?”

“We’re not seventeen anymore,” Nobuta says pointedly. “And I’m married, remember? I have to live vicariously through you two now.”

“You’ve only been married for six months!” Shuuji contests. “It can’t be boring already.”

Nobuta laughs. “Do you really want to have this conversation? I thought we were talking about Akira’s sex life.”

Shuuji cringes. “I don’t want to have that conversation either.”

“Come to think of it, Shuuji,” Nobuta starts slowly, “when was the last time _you_ went out on a date?”

“I have to go,” Shuuji hisses, then hangs up. Like a big, skinny _coward_.

He could almost hear Nobuta laughing at him across town. Damn her for being right.

Unfortunately, there really aren’t any girls that Shuuji is interested in. Girls seem to be all the same at his university, and besides, he goes there to _learn_. Akira goes because he has nothing better to do, although Shuuji strongly suspects that Akira chose this particularly university solely because of him. He wonders what will happen in the spring when they both graduate, if Akira will follow him to a job as well.

Sometimes Akira seems like a lost puppy, Shuuji reasons. One whom he’s grown rather attached to, so it’s only natural to worry when he doesn’t come around for four days.

… right?

By the fifth day, Shuuji doesn’t see him in class and skips a lab to go to the dorms. Of course Akira has his own room, paid for by his father, undisturbed by any dormmates with his own shower for ultimate privacy. Shuuji can’t be too jealous because he doesn’t even stay in a dorm, his parents’ house only a few blocks from campus. They’ll be getting an apartment soon anyway, he and Akira, at Akira’s insistence.

Not if Akira’s got a girlfriend, Shuuji thinks bitterly. Akira will probably want to live with _her_ instead, and then what will Shuuji do? He can’t afford an apartment on his own, and he doesn’t want to live with some _stranger_.

He’s contemplating how to get Akira back when he realizes he’s knocked several times with no answer. It would appear that Akira’s not home, except that the doorknob miraculously turns with absolutely no help from Shuuji’s hand – none at all. Since the door is already open, Shuuji feels that it’s his duty to check the place and make sure Akira hasn’t been robbed and tied up.

He wouldn’t exactly call it being tied up, but Akira is wrapped up rather snugly in several blankets with his air conditioning on high.

“Akira?” he says gently, praying to everything holy that Akira is alone in those blankets.

“Mmm, Shuuji-kun,” Akira hums, followed by a cough. “Don’t come any closer, I’ll contaminate you!”

“You’re… sick?” Shuuji realizes out loud.

Akira coughs in response. “I’m sorry Shuuji-kun, but I think you should leave. I don’t want you to get sick too! Then I have to go even longer without seeing you.”

Shuuji feels warm as a smile spread on his face. “What are you going to do when we’re living together and you get sick?”

“Stay in my room!” Akira answers passionately. “Shuuji’s health is important. Now leave!”

Shuuji goes, but not for long. He’s gone long enough to go to the store and stop at home, whipping up his mother’s recipe for chicken soup and hustling it back to Akira’s dorm before it gets cold.

Akira’s eyes are puffy and his nose is red when he pokes his head out of the blankets at Shuuji’s return. “Shuuji brought me soup?”

“Akira’s health is important too,” Shuuji says, holding the bowl under Akira’s chin as he spoons some soup into his mouth. “This will help you get better faster.”

Shuuji didn’t think it was possible to eat and grin at the same time, but Akira manages. “Thank you. Shuuji-kun takes such good care of me~”

Better than some slutty girlfriend, Shuuji thinks smugly.


End file.
